Photo Essay - Replacing Ba/bf Falcon Ball Joints

[PhilMeUp]

Part 1 - Why Replace Them?

I’m going to make this the one-stop-shop thread for replacing ball joints, so I’ll start by reposting some previous stuff so that everything is in the one thread. This is going to take a while, so go clear the bladder and bowel, tell the missus that you’ll gone for a few days, get your favourite pizza shop menu and strap yourself into your favourite chair.

I had a close call with a worn ball joint a couple of days ago, so am going to ramble on about these things for a bit. If you aren’t familiar with ball joints and have a Falcon then you need to be aware of this stuff.

Ball joints are part of the front end suspension area. They are part of the stuff that holds the front wheel on. Which means when a ball joint wears out and fails then things are going to get a tad tricky.

There is an upper and lower ball joint on each side of an AU/BA/BF Falcon. It’s probably the same for previous Falcons - look it up.

One of the lower ball joints on my girlfriend’s taxi let go last year, but luckily she was stationary. It just went click and the front end collapsed. This also caused some minor damage to the front fender panel.





Deb was extremely lucky - these things normally let go when the car is moving.

That’s when the real fun happens, as I found out with an AU Falcon back in early 2009. I was cruising along at 85km/h with myself and four other guys in the car. The ball joint let go at that speed, the passenger side of the car collapsed and the whole lot slid along the road. It freaked the hell out of me at the time but I kept both hands held tightly onto the steering wheel - I figured as long as the car stayed on the bitumen and didn’t drift into the kerbing on either side of the road then we’d be ok.

By the time the car dropped to 60km/h I figured that we weren’t all going to hospital that night. Luckily, the car kept going in a straight line and no-one was harmed. It did leave a very impressive long skid mark on the road which was there for weeks afterward.

This was at about 3:30am on a Wednesday night. The car was back on the road on Friday, a day and a half later.

These days, I know a lot more about ball joints and how this failed. In this case, it was a lack of maintenance (I didn’t own that car). Now that I’ve got my own taxi, and my girlfriend has hers, I’m a lot more interested in knowing how to replace these on my own and ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

Here are some photos that I took with an old Nokia phone and a torch at the time - I’ve never published these before because I’ve never been able to do a decent Photoshop job on removing certain logos and signage. These will have to do for now:

[PhilMeUp]

Part 2 - The G &G Technics GGT-400 Hand Press

Don’t know about you, but those photos motivate me to know a bit more about ball joints.

My taxi has been making some squeaking sounds over the last two weeks, but it wasn’t until Friday afternoon that I could get it to a workshop.

As soon as he pulled out on to the road for a test drive the mechanic said that it was one of the ball joints. He pointed out that the steering was also stiffer than usual. I also thought this, but had just been away on holiday for a few weeks driving other cars so wasn’t sure whether it was just me used to the other cars that I’d driven lately.

The car went up on the hoist and the passenger side wheel had some movement in it. You can test this by pushing the wheel up and down (ie get under it and push up and down with your shoulder) - if there’s any movement then that’s the worn ball joint. This is easy enough to do on a hoist but more difficult to do at home with a jack.

The mechanic had the ball joint replaced with minutes.

So, if you are getting some squeaking sounds from the front end and/or the steering seems a bit stiffer than normal, then you need to get the ball joints checked immediately.

I was curious what tools he used. I had read about the G & G Technics GGT-400 previously and sure enough, that’s what he had in the workshop. I decided right then to buy one as soon as possible. Ball joints aren’t expensive (around $30 each) so I would happily fit new ones on both taxis every six months if I could. That would be excessive, but I’m a tad obsessed with preventing the above mishaps.

The G & G Technics GGT-400 can be found easily enough for around $400. I made some phone calls and found a Repco that had one in stock that someone ordered but didn’t pick up. The manager knew that it was dead stock and being so specialised it wouldn’t sell for a long time (if ever). She couldn’t make a loss on it, but she wasn’t fussed about making a huge profit on it either. We bounced some numbers back and forth and managed to agree on $350.

Some tips on haggling:
- First of all, identify the person who is authorised to negotiate. That’s the person to discuss it with.
- Be polite about it. Lots of manners. Everyone thinks that haggling is a power trip that requires aggression and raised voices. Retail staff hate that crap and are more inclined to just end the conversation to get rid of you.
- I figure out in advance a number that I want to pay - in this case I had the rather ambitious and slightly unrealistic figure of $300 in mind.
- Explain that’s the budget that you’ve allowed for this. How close to that price can you get?
- With the right amount of tact and charisma (ie decisive, but still a bit of sucking up) it’s surprising what you can get out of people.
- In this case, she hinted what the cost price was. $330 wasn’t going to do it either. Stuff it, I’ve made the decision to buy one of these things so we agreed on the $350.
- When I haggle on things, I do it to buy the item. Not to waste any time or try the person out. I conduct the negotiation, make the agreement and then go buy the thing immediately.

Web site link - G &G Technics GGT-400: http://www.ggtechnics.com.au/products/ggt_400/mini_press_series_400_portable_hand_press/
Instructions: http://www.ggtechnics.com.au/products/ggt_400/mini_press_series_400_portable_hand_press/GGT_400_instructions.pdf



A diagram showing what comes in the box.



Photos of mine:















Someone is currently selling them on eBay for $399 delivered: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150951261864
Or, look up their eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com.au/partszoos

[PhilMeUp]

Part 3 - How To Replace The Ball Joints

If you haven’t ordered pizza yet, then now is the time to do so.

I’ll start with a couple of diagrams that show what the front end is composed of.





Here’s a photo of the brass rings and spacers. For replacing the lower ball joints, I’m going to use numbers 4, 5 and 7.



I bought this extra long ring spanner/ratchet spanner a few months ago and am finding it to be extremely useful for anything to do with brakes and engine oil changes (ie those jobs use a 15mm spanner or socket, and require a suitable a bit of tension to undo and redo up.)

This is a Sealey AK631915 Double Ring Ratchet/fixed Spanner Extra-long 15mm, which I got via mail order from England. Cost around $30 delivered. The ring spanner end is a good depth, so won’t strip a bolt head. This thing is allowing me to undo brake calliper bolts easily, and do them up tightly enough later on. Do a Google or eBay search for Sealey AK631915 to find one (I bought mine on eBay).



This is what I keep in my toolbox for loosening wheel nuts. It’s an extendable wheel brace - you can get these from car accessory shops. I found a gadget that adds a ratchet effect, also from a car accessory shop. And then the socket on the end - I’m currently using 19mm wheel nuts, but almost all other Falcons will be using the usual 21mm wheel nuts. I also keep one of these wheel braces in the car for changing a flat tyre.



I’ve jacked up the front of the car and removed the wheel. When jacking up the car, I’ve jacked up the entire front so that with both wheels off the ground I can turn the hub and spindle back and forth as required. This made it much easier to access certain areas.



I’ve removed the disc rotor and calliper. I use a pot plant hook from a hardware shop to hang the calliper from either the upper control arm or the suspension spring. I’ve loosed the nut at the top. It turned out that my impact socket set (ie six-sided) didn’t have an 18mm socket, but a 19mm six-sided socket worked fine.



Having removed the bolt. I’ve given the upper control arm a few thumps with a normal hammer. The vibrations will help the two items to come apart. A bigger hammer would be useful, but this one loosed it easily enough. The upper ball joint and spindle came loose fairly easily.



Having got the top one loose, it was time to start on the bottom. I used an 8mm ratchet spanner to remove the ABS sensor so that I have better access to the ball joint nut.



I used the extendable wheel brace to give me the leverage to remove the ball joint nut, which came loose quite easily (they aren’t done up particularly tight).



Once the nut was loosened, I went to work with the hammer and started banging around the lower spindle area.



Much to my relief, the spindle and ball joint came apart fairly easily.

[PhilMeUp]

The spindle came away from the car and sat on the ground. Time to start on removing the ball joint.



Start by removing the rubber cover, which lifts off with a bit of force. The ball joint is full of grease.



The new replacement ball joint - part number BA3395A. They retail for somewhere around $50 each, but you can do a search for that part number on eBay. I found one listing that had them for $59.95 a pair, including postage.



Time to use the press to push the old ball joint out. Ring 7 has a collar on it that fits over the top of the ball joint. Ring 5 is an empty spacer that allows room for the ball joint to slide downward. I had overlooked getting a socket to fit the hand press, so ended up having a go with an old fashioned crescent. Using a socket with the extendable brace would have been much easier, but the crescent did the job. When fitting the new bush, I pushed the crescent the last few times with my foot to make sure that the ball joint was pushed fully into place. And of course, it wasn’t until I finished the entire job that I realised that I have a 27mm socket in my motorbike toolbox. Bugger.



Another view of the hand press, rings and spacers that were used to remove the ball joint.



Ring 7 is the one that pushes the top of the ball joint down. On one side of 7 is a collar that fits into the top of the hand press, and on the other side is a collar that fits snugly over the top of the ball joint.



Another photo showing how ring 7 goes between the hand press and ball joint.



Now that I’ve got the old ball joint out, you can see the splines in the remaining hole.



The new ball joint also has splines on the base.



I’ve tapped the new ball joint with a mallet so that the splines hold it into place.

[PhilMeUp]

Time to put ring 7 to use again. This time, one side of it will fit over the base of the new ball joint.



Another couple of photos showing how ring 7 has a collar that pushes the old ball joint out.





Now it’s time to use the hand press to push the new ball joint into place. Number 4 goes on the bottom, with number 5 filling up the space between 4 and 7.



Putting the rings into place and getting ready to tighten up the hand press. As mentioned, I forgot that I had a 27mm socket elsewhere and so used a crescent. It still got the job done, but I’ll be buying a 27mm socket to leave in the hand press box for next time.



The new ball joint, pushed into place.



Now it’s time to reassemble everything, starting with putting the spindle back into place and putting the ball joint nut on.



I bought this digital torque wrench a few years ago but have really only been using it for doing wheel nuts up to the required 125 Nm (as specified by Ford). I’ve been rather picky about this… because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to brakes. The wrong torque on the wheel nuts can contribute to disc rotor warping and brake shudder. Finally, I got to use the torque wrench for something else tonight by ensuring that the ball joint nut was done up to Ford’s specified 90 Nm.



A photo of the ball joint nut done up, and the spindle in place. Next is the ABS sensor.



The ABS sensor has a bolt with an 8mm head, so I used a ratchet spanner on that. Ratchet spanners are ideal for this sort of task - doing up a bolt quickly as it requires a lot of rotations.

[PhilMeUp]

Now that the lower stuff has been attended to, it’s time to refit the upper ball joint end into the top of the spindle.



The bolt goes into place.



Once again, I used my digital torque wrench to do up the nut to Ford’s specified 90 Nm. This wasn’t particularly tight. If you don’t have a torque wrench, I would describe this as being “medium tight to tight”.



With my front braided brake lines, the original grommets came apart and went missing fairly quickly. To get around this, I got some replacement grommets from a brake parts place and hacksawed a groove into each one. That has allowed me to get the grommet back onto the brake line. I then push it into the bracket and rotate it so that the groove is at the top.



The grommet back in place, and I’m about to rotate it so that the groove is at the top. With the way that the grommet is shaped where it slides into the bracket, this also locks it in so that it can’t slide out.



Once everything was double checked I put the brake disc rotor and calliper back on, followed by the wheel. Job finished!!!!



Overall, this was a fairly easy job that someone with basic mechanical skills could do. The problem is the cost of the hand press - unless you have a bunch of cars to do, or are doing cars regularly, it’s not worth spending so much on something that you’ll use once every few years.

There are other options out there. Do a search on www.radum.com.au for ball joint and you’ll find a couple of kits there.

Part number: RDM-VT01017
Link: http://radum.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10669



Part number: RDM-BM94-4063
Link: http://radum.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8686



I’ve got a spare pair of lower control arms here, so some time I’ll take them to Radum and see if they’ll let me have a go at removing and re-fitting ball joints with one of their kits.

Radum has a branch in most capital cities, so you can at least go there and see what they have. If you’ve got a dirt bike then get a scissor jack stand while you’re there - very, very useful.

[PhilMeUp]

As mentioned earlier, one of the ball joints in Deb’s taxi let go last year when she was stationary, and now that I know how easy it is to replace them I’m kicking myself for not being able to do so that night. She ended up paying someone $300 to come out the next morning to do the job. Plus the $150 tow to get the car home. Not cheap - quite an expensive way to replace a $30 part.

I have a separate toolbox that I use for Falcon stuff, but this job required a few sockets that I don’t normally carry in that tool box - an 18mm, a 22mm and the 27mm for the C & G hand press. I used an 18mm and 22mm from a set of impact sockets that I have, and I used a crescent on the hand press because I forgot that I have a 27mm socket in my motorbike toolbox (for motorbike rear axle nuts). I keep the two separate toolboxes because there are times when tools are being used on motorbikes and taxis at the same time.

I spent $40 today on three sockets so that I can keep them in the plastic box with the hand press. A bit extreme, but it means that if I change ball joints on a car at a different location then I won’t have trouble with forgetting to bring the other sockets along. The 18mm and 27mm ones are the normal short ones, and the 22mm one is a long one to get to the lower spindle bolt.

[PhilMeUp]

Update:

Despite this being a fairly easy job, the problem for most people will be getting the old ball joint pressed out and the new one pressed in. Sure, you can try knocking the old one out with a large hammer and banging the new one in back in with a hammer, but that isn’t going to be the best way of doing this.

I paid a bunch of money for a specialised tool, but I figured that I could justify that by using it several times a year for numerous years. I might have been wrong on that one.

I had seen a ball joint removal kit previously at Radum and was curious to see if it would be suitable for removing and replacing BA & BF Falcon ball joints. I went to the Perth branch and took a front lower control arm with me.

And it all works perfectly. The Radum kit will do the job just fine, and for less than a third of what I paid for my kit. Bugger.

So, there’s no excuse for someone to have worn ball joints. Get new ones from your local car accessory shop, Ford dealer, eBay, etc, and get one of these kits to fit it. Even if you only use the kit once, it will still work out cheaper than the labour cost at a workshop. You could then resell the kit (eBay, Gumtree, etc) if you were sure that you weren’t going to need it again.

Photos:

To remove the ball joint it must be pushed downward, out of the control arm. The top of the C clamp goes over the top of the ball joint and pushes it downward out of the control arm when the thread is tightened. There is a cylinder in the kit that is the perfect diameter for going underneath the control arm (ie for the ball joint to slide through).



Another angle of the same thing.



The same things are replied in reverse to push a new ball joint into place.



At $97.00 (including GST) this is a bargain.

[rollex]

How much more work would it be to remove the arm and just do it in a bench top press?

[PhilMeUp]

How much more work would it be to remove the arm and just do it in a bench top press?

Can be done - http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/88363-photo-essay-replacing-front-control-arm-bushes-version-20

Lot of extra work, though.